15 July 2016

Community Preservation Act in Springfield MA?

Plans are in the mix to offer the citizens of Springfield MA to join the numerous communities across the Commonwealth who have adopted the Community Preservation Act (CPA). The Act, created in 2000, allows community to self tax by adding a small surcharge on real estate taxes. Springfield proponents recommending 1.5%, and that is estimated to add $10 to the tax bill for the average house.

Ten bucks is worth all of that, and I hope the citizens embrace this opportunity to improve Springfield. I wrote about the CPA and you can read the paper here.

The towns and cities shown in green on the map below have adopted the Community Preservation Act as of May 2016. Thus far, 228 Massachusetts communities have voted on CPA adoption. Of those, 161 communities (46 percent of the state's municipalities) have passed CPA. This represents a 71 percent adoption success rate.